#no dogma just movement

[wraithclatter]

“A cover story in The New York Times Magazine had just hailed him as the “impassioned prophet of a new ‘psychocivilized society’ whose members would influence and alter their own mental functions.”

Jose Delgado, intelligence asset and the man that could ‘pilot’ animals with computer chips that fed into a  handheld radio wave device. I used to have his book ‘physical control of the mind: towards a psycho-civilized society’ in high school. Psychotic stuff. And people think these experiments in the 50’s and 60’s were just random one-and-done- instances. That they weren’t perfected and broadened in scope. Now the tech is just above the size of an atom and can be manipulated freely. To say nothing as one poster mentioned about cellphones or the ambient variables in your everyday environment that have been calculated to influence your behavior and ways you think. Wake up because we have a lot of work to do.

-Article that above quote is from:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/tribute-to-jose-delgado-legendary-and-slightly-scary-pioneer-of-mind-control/

-Archive:

https://archive.ph/vJ4uq

Video of Delgado piloting a bull's brain:

[cigarettedolly13]

ATP I feel like no matter who wins this election shit is still gonna get pretty bad because what the fuck is going on with the DNC? Why is Israel like…the hill these people are willing to die on? I don’t get it. It would only benefit them politically to support an arms embargo on Israel I mean most of us don’t want our money going to fund wars anyway, and I mean it could EASILY make them actually look better than Trump considering Trump unconditionally supports Israel and is Netanyahu’s favorite candidate. Why are the democrats insisting on staying pro war and being pro military and all that shit when they know we’re sick and tired of them blowing all our tax money on wars? I mean can they not get money from anywhere besides AIPAC??? Can they not just like…like why do they wanna be Hillary Clinton and her stupid husband so bad???? And not to mention all that shit about them not even let a Palestinian speak at the fucking DNC stage??? The person who wanted to speak wasn’t even against the democrats and would’ve only brought attention and humanity to the Palestinians who’ve been suffering for the past 10 months, I did read the speech btw she uploaded it online in case anyone else wanted to read it, BUT YEAH! I’m just so fucking frustrated and sick of this fucking government refusing to listen or work with progressives or pro Palestine activists. Was spending the last 20 fucking years terrorizing Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and others for oil just not enough?????? Why do we need to keep having these endless fucking wars? There’s no fucking reason for this other than the US government on both sides, red and blue are bloodthirsty egomaniac greedy bastards. I’m tired of this. And those motherfuckers making fun of dead Palestinians will NOT see the gates of Heaven. I am not even religious but lord if there’s a heaven they’re not walking through the gates. They will show up at the gates of Heaven and fall through the trap door to the other side (okay maybe that won’t happen but still) I’m just disgusted by these people, and no I don’t think Trump should be president either btw I think Republicans are just as guilty and cartoonishly evil considering Reagan was the reason a lot of this mess started in the first place and they hate everybody anyway. But like…this is just frustrating. I hate seeing the Overton window shift further right in real time. If I wanted to go back to the Bush era I would build a goddamn Time Machine and hop my ass back to the year 2001, I’ll even bring my low rise jeans and baby tees so I can fit in while I watch Bush ruin the country. I’m just…

[shame-kink]

oops! accidentally fell into logical fallacies and biased projection common to lgbt+-community-identity/rhetoric-based-conservatism even in a post mostly criticizing myself for such kneejerk reactions! whuh-oh!

[fear-is-truth]

𝜗𝜚 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐆𝐎𝐓 𝐀 𝐅𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐇 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐌𝐘 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄

— father charlie mayhew x f!reader

tags – mature content﹒18 +﹒fem!reader﹒oral sex (f!receiving)﹒blasphemy in general

♱ a/n ◞ sorry this is awful. english is not my first language

his hands are resting on your knees, his grip tight like he’s afraid you’ll vanish again. you’ve been absent for weeks—dodging mass, an act to spite your religious parents. but father charlie mayhew has always spoken in your favour, insisting to them that you were “just figuring things out.” but you know that charlie has an interest in you—he always had. lingering touches, the looks that lasted a beat too long, not to mention the way he defended you, even when he shouldn’t. you’re not naive to it.

and maybe that’s why you’re back in church, letting him do this. one final act of rebellion against the religious dogma they’ve forced upon you. dipping his head, charlie kisses the soft flesh of your inner thigh, eyelashes fluttering as he stares up at you. “you have no idea how much i missed you,” the look in his eyes is reverent, almost worshipful. which, given current circumstances is quite laughable.

you say nothing, giving him a saucy little smirk before graciously lifting your hips for him to slide your panties down your legs and past your ankles. you inhale sharply when you feel the pad of his finger push inside, slowly sinking to the knuckle. then inserting another. dragging across your plushy walls before curling against the sweet spot that makes your toes curl and your head tilt back; staring up at the faint slats of light filtering through the confessional booth’s lattice window, thin lines of shadow crisscrossing against the mahogany ceiling.

this is the closest to heaven i’ll ever be, you realise. with a priest between my thighs.

at the first kitten-lick, your entire world shifts—fracturing into pieces and reforming itself all at once. a moan escapes you when charlie wraps his tongue over your clit and sucks genty, teasing the bundle of sensitive nerves.

another suckle has you clamping your thighs around his head, fingers twisting in his hair.

every one of his movements is executed with finesse and precision, tactfully coordinating between thrusting his finger and licking your cunt until the pressure he’s been coaxing from you finally reaches its peak, exploding like a gentle burst of snowfall. white-hot pleasure engulfs your entire being, blinding in its euphoric intensity. fingers stilling, charlie keeps his tongue flattened his against your clit as it pulsates throughout the glorious orgasm that follows, him lapping away greedily as if a starved man bestowed upon the nectar of god.

the muffled groans and wet slurping noises between your thighs are nothing short of obscene, and yet you’ve never experienced such a deep sense of satisfaction, of freedom in your life. but with him—the man who always urges you to cast propriety aside for indulgence. father charlie, who wears his hubris like armour, who twists scripture to justify every sin you commit together.

perhaps it’s lust, or something close to it. you don’t know him well enough to say it was love, but you’re drawn to him nonetheless, like eve to the apple, like the prodigal son to his rebellion.

he tries to lead you astray, and you let him. every time.

mlist. © fear-is-truth do not repost, modify or translate

[robertreich]

Why Trump Is Partnering With Christian Nationalists

Donald Trump is portraying himself as a religious savior. He says Election Day will be: …”the most important day in the history of our country, and it’s going to be Christian Visibility Day.”

Trump has repeatedly compared his criminal trials to the crucifixion of Jesus, promoted videos calling his reelection “the most important moment in human history,” and that describe him as a divinely appointed ruler.

He claims to be a holy warrior against an imaginary attack on Christianity.

TRUMP: They want to tear down crosses//But no one will be touching the cross of Christ under the Trump administration. I swear to you.

He’s even selling his own version of the Bible.

Trump is playing to a rising white Christian Nationalist movement within the Republican Party.

Christian Nationalists believe that the law of the land is not the Constitution, but instead the law of God as they interpret it. Under this view, atheists and people of other faiths (including Christians of other denominations) are all second-class citizens.

Trump’s supporters are increasingly overt in their calls to replace democracy with a MAGA theocracy.

The idea that the will of voters is irrelevant because God has anointed Trump was a recurring message in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

In previous videos, I’ve highlighted how MAGA Republicans have embraced core elements of fascism. They reject democracy, stoke fear of immigrants and minorities, embrace a gender and ethnic hierarchy, and look to a strongman to lead and defend them.

The combination of fascism and Christian Nationalism is called Christofascism, a term first used half a century ago by the theologian Dorothee Sölle. Fascists rise to power by characterizing their opponents as subhuman. Christofascists take it a step further by casting opponents as not just subhuman, but actually demonic.

Framing opponents as enemies of God makes violence against them not only seem justifiable, but divinely sanctioned, and almost inevitable.

Christofascists want to strip away a wide range of rights Americans take for granted. Former Trump staffers involved in developing plans for a second Trump term have called for imposing “Biblical” tests on immigration, overturning marriage equality, and restricting contraception.  

And MAGA-aligned judges are already setting their dogma ahead of the Constitution. In his concurring opinion on the case that declared frozen embryos are people, Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker cited God more than forty times and quoted the Book of Genesis and other religious texts.

Nothing could be more un-American than the Christian Nationalist vision. So many of America’s founders came here as refugees seeking religious freedom. The framers of the Constitution were adamant that religion had no role in our government. The words “God,” “Jesus,” and “Christ,” don’t appear anywhere in the Constitution. And the very first words of the Bill of Rights are a promise that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Christofascism, or any religion-based form of government, is a rejection of everything America has aspired to be — a secular, multi-racial society whose inhabitants have come from everywhere, bound together by a faith in equal opportunity, democracy, and the rule of law.

Beware.

[beta-therapy]

Female Sexual Freedom = More Sexless Men?

By all metrics, female sexual freedom is at an all-time high in Western society. In this discussion, female sexual freedom / liberation / empowerment is a general term used to describe women’s

-openness to casual sex,

-average number of sexual partners, and

-ability to be sexually promiscuous without social repercussions.

We see today’s women, in large numbers, going out in revealing outfits that draw attention to their sexual features. We know that the typical modern woman does not have the same hesitation toward casual sex that women had 30 years ago. Rather than hide her sexuality and treat it as sacred, she wears it like a crown, unapologetically. She flaunts it on social media.

This is just one effect of a broad scale cultural change in the developed world. As we become more scientifically and technologically savvy, there is a large movement to depart from the ancient wisdom encoded in religious principles, and instead, to derive our values from rationality.

And this is the result. A population of free, empowered women who live with a focus on fun and pleasure. They reject religious dogma (it’s just a bunch of arbitrary rules!). Since there aren’t any objective values and everyone can pick their own, this leads to the feminine tendency to be inclusive and tolerant of everyone (except when it comes to sexual selection, of course. There’s no inclusivity there, but it’s just biology so you should respect women’s decisions).

Now here is the paradox. Sexuality has become a lot more public. Women are much more open to engaging in casual sex. Hookup culture is widespread. We’ve never lived in a more sexual society. So it should follow that your everyday, average Joe is getting a lot more sex, because the barrier to sex is so low, right?

Actually, the opposite is true. The average guy experiences a barrier to sex that has never been higher. It is fair to say the average man today is invisible to women. Check out the standards females set for men today. Check out the statistics on male sexlessness. The number of sexless men has been rapidly increasing every year in this digital age.

The culture is becoming extremely sexual, but here’s the catch: the only men who get to participate are those in the top tier (the men who women actually want to have sex with).

Therefore, instead of saying we live in a hypersexual society, it’s more accurate to say that women are no longer beholden to traditional values, so they can freely express their deepest desires, and instead of getting shamed, they are accepted. We are letting their true colors shine through!

And what did those true colors turn out to be?

Women love sex! But not with an average guy.

In plain, honest terms, what women want is to chase the man with value. The man who could get any girl. She wants to seduce him. Make him fall in love with her. That’s the female sexual fantasy that we’re watching play out. It has nothing to do with giving out sex to an average guy.

This paradox is an example of the tug-of-war between freedom and equity.

Society has removed much of the stigma on sexual promiscuity, substantially increasing our ability to freely make sexual decisions without getting judged. We’re taking down the barriers on sex and sexual behavior, so it’ll be more accessible to everyone!

But the effect is the complete opposite of “more sex for everyone.” Women’s freedom to act out their deepest desires without apology has resulted in the strongest social caste system of men, because those deep desires only pertain to alphas. Some men fuck hundreds of girls. For other men, the only way to have sex is to pay for it.

The same consideration applies to every item of public policy. The laissez faire capitalist system is attractive because everyone is free to make their own decisions. But since consumers are naturally going to select the best products available, the system is prone to monopolistic takeover. The result is that everyone buys from the same few companies, and your average Joe cannot enter the playing field because he has no ability to compete.

We know one thing for certain. Freedom is key! We should all be free to pursue our highest potential. That’s equality of opportunity. You can’t control the outcome without infringing freedom. Some of us will achieve at a high level and reap all the rewards, but most of us will never come close no matter how hard we try. At the end of the day, we accept the rewards if we’ve won, and if not, we don’t complain when we see the spoils awarded to others.

[mcklunkers]

Do you guys reckon that the 501st struggled to go to Dex’s for a bit after Umbara?

It was never anything against Dex of course, or against Besalisks in general, and it didn’t last longer than a couple of stays on coruscant.

But the diner owner had a habit of hugging clones when they came in, and just enough had seen their brothers ripped apart by arms like those, or crushed beneath four arms like those, or noticed that the way that he would wield four spatulas in the kitchen was just close enough to Krells lightsaber movements that they had to stop visiting for a while.

It was actually Fives who went back first, explained the situation, and Dex was understanding. He had known Krell and never especially like him - he was reminiscent of everything he didn’t like about his homeworld, and when he learned what specifically happened to the clones? Let’s just say Krell was lucky Dogma got to him before Dex.

Dex was more careful around 501st clones for a while until they recovered a little, but he never gave the ones who served on Umbara his patented bear hugs anymore, giving them gentler two armed side hugs instead.

And the clones were always grateful for him for that.

[queen-esther]

I’m struggling to understand why secular leftism has become so appealing for people my age. The average leftist I stumble across has a variety of self-admitted mental health problems and is absolutely miserable, probably because their entire worldview revolves around hyper focusing on an ever-changing standard of “problems” within society and lamenting about how the world will never get better until everyone’s entire way of life is completely dismantled and rebuilt to fit, again, a standard of morality and living that changes every five minutes at the whims of whatever protest group is getting the most coverage at any given point.

You’re ostracized from your friend groups if you don’t performatively show your support for the latest “movement,” you’re expected to tirelessly keep up to date on every single tragedy in the world or else you’re “privileged,” you’re by default a worthless and evil piece of shit if you aren’t a POC and/or some form of LGBT+, and even then, certain members of those groups get ostracized if they’re not “dark enough” or not “gay enough” or not trans. You’re encouraged to start shit with family members and even cut them off completely if they don’t support every little pet protest your friends have rallied behind. What’s more, there’s no greater purpose in life beyond Supporting The Cause. The dogma of your religion is contributing to the latest hashtag about BLM or COVID or Palestine or trans rights. You’re discouraged from finding purpose in faith or family or patriotism, and you’re not a “good person” unless you’re over-the-edge angry and distraught all the time.

Idk, I just don’t see the appeal of any of this, lol. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[lizardsfromspace]

One of the takeaways from the James Somerton thing really should've been how often the things the discourse-industrial complex elevates into widespread controversies just...don't exist; are taking one Weird Tweet by One Isolated Weirdo and presenting them as a mass movement

Like. It's amazing how many times I've dug into some controversy that set some discourse group or another into a tizzy, sometimes for days of rage, or that became incorporated into their central dogma, and it's. One tweet with few likes from someone with few followers, often out of context. It happens on here all the time too

[lonewolflupe]

🎉Congratulations🎉 on your follower milestone! If you still have space I would love to request some Hardcase.

If you could, something kind of halloween season related? Maybe Hardcase (maybe one or two of his brothers?) watching a scary movie?

Honestly, if it's Hardcase I'm going to be stoked regardless of what it is. 😂

Thank you! and Congrats again!

Hardcase: Shhh guys, this is the best part! Jesse: *snores*

Art request for @sunshinesdaydream! Some ramblings below the cut (:

The art request event is now closed

Welcome to Hardcase's Halloween Holohorror Happening!

HELP this was supposed to be a Hardcase-centered piece, but I kept getting inspiration for his brothers (I was very tempted to have Fives leaning against the back of the couch, but I thought four clones was enough for one drawing xD)

I would very much like to tug myself in between these boys to watch a holofilm (I really don't care what genre at this point, just put me on that couch)

Turtleneck-/reading glasses-Dogma is now living rent free in my mind

Also this was my best attempt at pop art; I think Hardcase would appreciate that art movement

Question to everyone: who are you when watching a horror movie? The Jesse (distracted all the time/not being able to focus on the movie, you can't get yourself to watch the whole thing), the Hardcase (super excited, you don't want to miss a second), the Tup (too scared to watch but you want to know what is happening anyway), or the Dogma (you were actually doing something else, but you keep getting distracted by the movie)?

To @sunshinesdaydream: thank you so much for your request, I had so much fun coming up with all their poses and expressions! <3

Here are some close-ups (Jesse is mood):

[thetenthsunrise]

the horizon in your eye -- character art/introductions

An intro to (most of) Jango's children in my AU, the horizon in your eye. Most of this art is a over year old, so bear with me, please. And yes, I know that I'm missing Boba and Omega, but I just never got around to them, lol.

All under the cut!

Bacara || The Silence

song: Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd

As Jango Fett’s eldest son, the often quiet Bacara serves as a lynchpin for his family. His truest loyalty is to his family, no matter the circumstances…or the danger of that loyalty. 

Kote || The Glory

song: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Neutral Milk Hotel

Kote–known to some as Cody–finds himself grappling with destiny and his own will as legends make themselves known. 

Fox || The Pawn

song: What I’ve Done, Linkin Park

Calculated and proud, Fox is forced into the position of Marshal Commander of The Coruscant Guard. There, he uncovers the heart of the war and struggles with his own role. 

Wolffe || The Anger

song: The Black Dog, Taylor Swift

Wolffe is Jango’s fourth son and the one who is said to have inherited the worst of his father’s qualities. Despite his brashness, however, Wolffe has never backed down from any fight he deems worthy. 

Ponds || The Regret song: No Complaints, Noah Kahan

Despite being the right hand man to one of the most famous Jedi, Ponds often allows himself to slip into the background, content to be a watcher. But it is him who creates the first cracks in their family, as enemies to their throne seek to gain an advantage. 

Bly || The Lover

song: This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody), The Lumineers

Bly is a man driven by desire and love. When duty and this love interact, he finds himself at an impasse, torn between his role as a Commander and his status as a brother and a lover. 

Rex || The Eyes

song: Fallen Fruit, Lorde

Bearing the jaig eyes, Rex is known for his courage and his unrelenting spirit. However, as the war drags on, he finds himself facing loss after loss and the weight of being both a brother and a commanding officer. 

Kix || The Hands

song: ilomilo, Billie Eilish

Kix is a healer at heart, and has been put into the Medic Corps in order to make full use of his skills. Calm, level-headed, and distinctly rational, Kix serves as a foundation within the ranks of the 501st. 

Jesse || The Loyal

song: Dog Days Are Over, Florence + The Machine

Jesse is a man who has never quite forget the original purpose he was bred for. He joins the fight out of loyalty to not only his home, but out of a desire to fulfil his purpose and find something else to fight for. 

Fives || The Revelation

song: 42, Coldplay

Fives is not a man who can easily be told no. Every loss he suffers only serves to drive the young man further, giving him purpose and reason…but endangering him all the same. 

Echo || The Lost

song: Last Words of a Shooting Star, Mitski

Echo, contrary to the seemingly endless movement of his twin, is a man caught in a stasis of his own making. Having never forgotten what happened to Kamino, Echo seeks to move forward and make a new life for himself. 

Dogma || The Fire

song: Don’t Ask, Just Let Me Know

Dogma is named for his own rigidity and adherence to the rules, no matter the cost. However, he still seeks to create an identity for himself, one removed from both his father and Kamino. 

Tup || The Tears

song: Funeral, Phoebe Bridgers

As Jango Fett’s third youngest, Tup has often found himself struggling with the passage of time. When the fight turns against him though, it is he who his family rallies around. 

anyways. thats that. sorry this is a mile long LMAOOOO

[wraithclatter]

News From The Front:

A Shh!!! Health Secrets! Production

A special report from the archives- original story was written on July Tenth, Two Thousand Twenty Four, 12:34 UTC

Early this morning across the globe clandestine paramilitary cults signalled their intentions with "accidental" warning flashes which blasted key sectors of the global central nervous-system, including national powerplants, missing person's organization headquarters, and heavily trafficked shipping lanes. As a puppet-parasite gave an underwhelming board meeting speech to a company of klonopin karens on a desolate downtown street corner, a nearby powerplant's siren began to wail, then promptly stopped. Officials have come out to say it was an accident and that "no one would be so goddamned stupid as to push that button seriously. The alarm is for kicks, not for crisis. Get with the times."

Though dismissive of the premise as the technicians of the powerplant were that the alarm could indeed be used for signalling an immanent danger to the locals, this keyed-in citizen reporter has a feeling that there's more to this whole warning systems business than meets the eye...is it possible that the nuclear facilities, the municipal governmental services buildings, humanitarian organizations, political and military sectors are all simply fronts and are actually used as processing plants to further The Great Goal of resurrecting The Old God and bringing about a great alchemical change to the whole earth- costing billions of people their lives all to bring about the endless tyranny of a fickle and spiteful entity whose thoughts are blind and whose breath breeds war upon whatever it smothers?? Maybe. But from my extensive research into different sounds, shapes, colors, numbers and letters over the course of many years leads me to believe this siren system could actually be used to signal a potential major danger. Though I doubt this would be necessary anytime soon as we have the grown ups hard at work all across the globe helping to keep this good earth from crumbling into dust in the sweaty palms of Old Man Kronos.

[morlock-holmes]

A Review of John McWhorter's Woke Racism

While I was reading through White Fragility @limeadeislife recommended I might check out John McWhorter's book, or maybe more of an extended pamphlet, Woke Racism: How A New Religion Has Betrayed Black America especially because I was looking at White Fragility through the lens of how it resembles what I understand about certain right-wing Christian cultures.

I'm not entirely sure how to approach McWhorter's book.

On the one hand, unlike Robin DiAngelo, McWhorter can put together a cogent argument in the format of "A leads to B, which suggests C" which DiAngelo never bothers to do, which means the book is both a breath of fresh air after White Fragility but also that I found myself wanting to argue with some of his tangential political views about, say, education, just because they were coherent enough to argue against.

But in terms of the central thesis, the book is, openly, aimed at left-wing centrist types who find people like DiAngelo utterly inexplicable, and less directly at members of DiAngelo's ideology who are starting to question the dogma.

In fact, I did enjoy this roasting of White Fragility

"Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility, for example, reads in the present tense like a bizarre exercise in mind control created by someone bent on manipulation and getting paid. That's a misinterpretation: It is a work-book based on principles foundational in seminars of critical race theory, which its author sincerely believes in, promoting it out of a sense of benevolent mission."

I both feel that I should, for consistancy's sake explain why this invocation of Critical Race Theory doesn't bother me too much while at the same time feeling that this would be a boring tangent of interest only to a handful of people who are constantly annoyed with me.

But this leads to my big issue with the book, which is that it is very "101". This book is aimed at me eight years ago; by 2020 I had already deprogrammed myself and if you are reading this tumblr you already think this stuff is obnoxious nonsense as well, and you'll be very familiar with most of McWhorter's arguments (Including his trade school advocacy and belief in ending the war on drugs). You already read about and were outraged by the egregious examples he cites.

There's room for a deeper book about all this stuff, which delves more deeply into both the history of ideas and the culture of the religion that McWhorter sees.

The Ideology With No Name

McWhorter doesn't actually use the word "Woke" in the book. He says he finds it dismissive, and the phenomenon is serious, but I also do get the feeling that he knows that a bunch of the people shrieking about "wokeness" are as mendacious and dishonest as DiAngelo and her ilk.

There's a silly bit in White Fragility where DiAngelo writes:

"[Charles W.] Mills describes white supremacy as 'the unnamed politcal system that has made the world what is is today.'"

Which... Like. You named it in that sentence.

In fact, one of the major propaganda victories of DiAngelo et al has been to assert that they do not have an ideology, that they are merely anti-racist, and that any anti-racist movement or person obviously agrees with them, and anybody who disagrees is disagreeing with anti-racism as such.

So there just isn't an agreed upon name for the particular thread DiAngelo is part of.

McWhorter calls the ideology "Third Wave Anti-racism" and the people who follow the ideology, "The Elect" after an essayist named Joseph Bottum who I have not yet read.

Basically, McWhorter sees third wave anti-racism as a religious movement rather than a political movement, and I also agree that it has a lot in common with Right Wing American Protestantism in particular. I thought I might just go over some of the parallels, some of these are things McWhorter goes over in his book, some are my own thoughts or expansions of my own thoughts based on things he says.

Anti-Racism is the Gospel, by which I mean "The Good News". There is a strain in American missionary work that professes to be baffled that anybody rejects the Gospels. The Gospels are obviously true, and obviously good. The fact that Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead is as obviously true as the fact that the sky is blue. And so anybody rejecting the Gospel is pathologized the same way that you would pathologize someone who insisted that nobody has ever seen a blue sky. You can't admit that maybe the Gospels could be false, or that the evidence for them is anything less then overwhelming, so you invent psychological reasons for why non-believers insist on saying things that are obviously false. DiAngelo specifically is like this, she constantly acts baffled that anybody would respond to her wisdom with anything other then sheer gratitude. White Fragility asks the question, "Given that everything I, Robin DiAngelo, say about race is true and helpful, why do people get so angry when I say it?" It sounds like I am exaggerating but I promise she says this in almost the same words in the introduction to the book, which I'd quote if I hadn't already returned it to the library.

Racism is Original Sin, This is so obvious that basically everybody who is opposed to third-wave antiracism has picked up on it. It's held that every white person is inherently racist, and we can't ever stop being racist, we can only acknowledge our racism and attempt to minimize the damage. But something that I think has been talked about less is that this can be used to enforce hierarchies. Something that happens often in Christian circles is that when a leader of the community is found doing something corrupt or bad, the response is, "Of course, it just goes to show you that every one of us can sin, but the leader has repented his sin and been forgiven by Jesus Christ, so if you don't forgive him as well it shows how unchristian you are." Meanwhile, if you are found to be sinning, well, doesn't it say something very bad about you that you let yourself do this despite the community looking our for you? A similar thing happens with this "We're all a little bit racist" two-step. DiAngelo's racism is the unfortunate problem with being raised in a racist society; your racism is evidence that you haven't done the work.

Your everyday life is the battleground between God and Satan One of the reasons Christianity appeals to people is that it elevates the everyday struggles into amazing battles for the universe. Your decision about whether to masturbate while thinking of that hot barista is actually a demon from another plane of existence locked in a deadly battle for your soul with the creator of the entire universe. As much as third-wave Antiracists talk about systemic racism, in practice they are really heavily focused on inter-personal racism. DiAngelo specifically professes that once enough white people have healed our internal racism, systemic racism will sort of... disappear in an act of pure white person will. Whether you talk over Monique from HR is elevated from petty office drama to a very battle for the soul of America and the fate of her minorities.

Have you heard the good news? One of the silliest tropes in American Christian media is when our Christian heroes run into people who have never thought about Christianity and don't know anything about the bible. Of course, that idea is absurd; Christianity is one of the major political forces in America, it's basically impossible to be ignorant of it, but because it doesn't have a hegemony, it's adherents often pretend that it has no power at all and only a tiny elect even know about it. Third-Wave Anti-racism constantly does the same thing, asserting that Whites just don't think about race or racism even as millions of them rush out to buy White Fragility. Because Third-Wave Antiracism does not have a hegemony in the US, this is taken as evidence that it is utterly powerless and nobody has even heard of it, even though that is patently absurd.

I've Done Everything The Bible Says, even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff! McWhorter points out that often, third-wave anti-racists will applaud both of two entirely contradictory opinions: e.g. if whites move out of minority neighborhoods, that's white flight and evidence of white racism. If whites move into minority neighborhoods, that's gentrification and evidence of white racism. From outside, this looks like, and frankly is, pure hypocrisy. But what it does in practice, and I say this from inside experience, is build out a social hierarchy. On the lowest rungs (The ones I used to occupy) are the people who actually believe this. We are surrounded both by obvious contradictions and by friends, coworkers, and celebrities telling us that actually all this makes perfect sense, and we assume everybody else just has access to a secret knowledge that allows them to resolve these apparent contradictions. What I very slowly learned, which lead to my conversion from the culture, was that this is not the case. You don't actually figure out some crazy third way out of that dilemma, you just move to the all-white suburb because you just had a kid and you're worried about crime, and then you occasionally publicly confess how guilty you are that you did it, and that it just shows how far we have to go. The people on the highest rung are, from what I can see, people who are so utterly lacking in self-awareness and so incapable of putting together a logical argument that they simply don't understand the contradictions in their own world-view, and just confidently do whatever.

Man, I've tried to write this a couple of times and it feels like it gets away from me.

One last trope in Christian media is the unbeliever who doesn't know anything about Christianity, but he reads the bible and then comes away with the exact political beliefs of a 21st century right-wing Evangelical. Which is of course absurd; the idea that you could reconstruct Evangelical beliefs on gun control or border security by reading the Bible is patently insane, but there is a cultural bonding ritual that comes from explaining how actually all of modern day Republican politics actually comes from the bible. People who don't get it are the outgroup, people who do are the in group.

I thought about this a lot while reading White Fragility. The ideas in it are not complex; rather, they are contradictory (Or at the very least, in extreme tension with each other) and explained incredibly badly.

This allows us to identify the in-group and out-group; our in-group are the people who are already so familiar with her ideas that they can take her rambling nonsense and explain that actually it's a bunch of simple, correct ideas (I can absolutely do this, by the way), while being confused or hostile marks you as a member of the out-group.

I may just make a different post about the other thing I wanted to talk about, which is how this stuff is different for black and white people.

McWhorter and a couple of other people I talked to reminded me that there were foot washing ceremonies during some of the George Floyd protests, and I just want to remind you all that any white person who washes the feet of a black protestor is symbolically casting themselves as Jesus Christ.

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/768602942216552448/the-fans-of-charactership-are-a-literal-cult?source=share Idk, i'm usually on board with how people need to stop misusing words like "gaslighting" and "grooming" in ways that dilute their true meaning, but the overly expansive use of "cult" shot the moon a long time ago. It predates the internet. It's even long been a joke in religious studies circles that religions are just cults plus time. We have widely-used terms like "cult classic" and "cargo cult" that have very little to do with "cults" in the vein of Jonestown or Heaven's Gate, the classic super-high-control mass suicide types of cults, not to mention something still clearly cultish but a level down from those like Scientology. Even the specific horrifying things they did - "drink the koolaid" for instance - have become colloquialisms. And despite this, I just don't think there's really a cultural problem with people confusing everyday cliques with the Branch Davidians. There's a pretty good book called "Cultish" by Amanda Montell that makes a good argument for why identifying broader "cultish" behaviors, ways of thinking, and rhetoric is useful even when it's not specifically a classic "cult" doing it - but something that has aspects of what makes cults bad. Think multi-level marketing schemes, for instance, or online hate movements like TERFs or the alt-right or MRAs. And I would say a lot of "anti" culture, and some specific insular fandom communities I've seen that featured overly controlling mods, or abusive community norms you can't question, headcanons that were treated like strict dogma everyone must adhere to, etc. are good examples of the utility of that. Something doesn't have to be a full-blown "cult" for it to have some parts of what makes cults harmful, and it to be useful to see that and identify it and therefore identify the group/person as harmful. (or even just specific elements of it as harmful, because sometimes overall benign groups adopt one or two harmful practices.) Like I remember my friend told me about leaving a fandom Discord server that was full of white people except for one POC who was also like the "head" of the group and people worshiped her as their anti-racism fandom guru, and anyone who ever questioned anything she said had to deal with the entire rest of the server coming down on them like the wrath of God. And that she used this position to constantly harangue people for minor things, for which they were expected to do public performative apologies in front of the whole server. I could tell my most offline, fandom-ignorant friend or family member about that and I know exactly what they would compare it to, and that is a cult! And there's a reason for that! That high-control stuff is messed up even when the goal isn't mass suicide. Personally, I've never seen like an entire ship's fandom be a cult, but I could definitely buy like a particular clique dedicated to it being cultish. But unless it's some super cracky rarepair that no one else would think of other than this little group that is desperate to speak it into existence, there are usually normie disconnected people shipping whatever it is, too. That would be the point I would make before "fandom groups can never be like cults."

--

Fandom has spawned multiple full on cults, but I don't think any were the majority of shippers of some particular thing.

[awkward-tension-art]

Darkess on Umbara Chp.12 (Rex x Reader)

Chapter 11. Chapter 13.

Friendly-Fire

cw: Rex x Reader, Reader is a medic, incorrect military procedure, graphic descriptions of injuries, blood, swearing, death and battle, Canon character death, Spoilers for the Umbara Arc, Pong Krell is an asshole, reader insert, names of non-canon dead clones, Grief, Dissociation, SUICIDE, friendly-fire, POV of dissociation, reader is gender neutral, no use of (Y/N), if i miss a tag LMK

MINORS DNI

“Stay alert. The enemy has our weapons and our armor, they may try to trick us with an ambush.”

You kept your head up as Rex led the few squads through the dark umbaran forest. He was at the front, pistols ready. 

Your location was near the back, keeping close to Tup and Dogma. You’ve learned the two were from the same batch, and it made you wonder.

How could Tup be so…sweet and polite while Dogma was so vindictive and tense?

“Watch out, Dogma!” Case in point, the trooper with a painted tear stopped his friend from stepping on a vine, “I saw that thing attack Hardcase. It'll chew you up and spit you out.” He warned, picking up a fist-sized rock, “Here, watch.” The soldier threw the stone, hitting a dark mound hidden in the ash-colored dirt. As soon as it hit the camouflage beast, the creature growled before waving its tendrils and opening its fanged mouth.

Dogma jumped back, “Ew!”

“Try not to get eaten by them,” You deadpanned, “I won’t be trying to rescue you if you do end up in its mouth.”

He was about to respond before being cut off by a barrage of blue blaster bolts. 

Blue? So Krell was right. The Umbarans stole clone weaponry.

“We're under attack!” 

The squads began to step backwards, getting behind cover. Two soldiers went down and you rushed past Tup and Dogma to their side. Your training kicked in as you assessed. The closest one to you had a smoking bolt right through his helmet.

Fatal shot. Instant death. His name was Uno. 

The other soldier twitched and you grabbed his arm before dragging him behind one of the dark-wooded trees. Two other troopers were behind the cover firing in the direction of the shots.

“I got you,” You spoke to him, taking off his helmet. 

No head injuries. Burn on his side. Most likely a graze. His name is Ryder.

An explosion, most likely a grenade, hit the ground a few feet from you. Despite that, you remained calm, “Stay awake, I’m going to fix you right up,” In one swift movement you had a patch out of one of your packs and placed over the blaster burn. You worked quickly, getting him stabilized.

Ryder flinched and groaned, but nodded, “Thanks Doc.”

“Where’s the enemy!?” One of the troopers next to you shouted, clearly unsure where to shoot.

The one kneeling beside him answered, “I don't know! I can't see anything!”

The trooper who asked the question flew back, hitting the ground. His chest had two smoldering holes through it. The plastoid melted and burned, his skin turning to embers from the heat.

Blaster bolts through the heart. Fatal. His name. What was his name? Barr. His name was Barr.

You looked up, spotting Kix tending to a writhing trooper. Another missile hit the tree above him, raining glowing red branches and burning ash down on them. 

A blue shot nicked your cover, barely missing your head and you ducked. 

“Get those mortars up here!” You heard Rex command. He was somewhere behind cover in front of you.

Good. Stay safe, cyare. You prayed silently to yourself. 

Tup and Dogma ran forward, heavy weapons ready. They were followed by a group of about six other men, also armed with mortars. They knelt, keeping low to the ground. They fired, and the sky rang out with a familiar whistle of falling explosives. 

The ground trembled with the power from such shots, and smoke began to billow from the woods in front of the 501st squads. You peaked, taking the brief moment to dash to Kix’s side and aid him with the wounded. 

Just as you got safely behind cover, blaster bolts fired again from the enemies side. 

“Anyone have a visual?” The clone captain asked, keeping behind the massive, black trunk of an umbaran tree. Several shots scraped the wood narrowly missing Rex, but he didn’t even flinch.

Kix stood, leaning out from behind his own cover, he steadied his scope, “Negative. It's too dark.” He dove back, barely dodging a shot directly to the head. After a moment, he peaked again, “Wait! I see them! They're disguised as clones, all right.”

The squads surged forward, charging the moment they had a visual. 

Chaos reigned as blasters and grenades littered the air and ground. You kept back and out of sight, grabbing any wounded and getting them behind cover. You could manage with the supplies you had, even if the Umbarans seemed more skilled than usual. 

One of the troopers, Filter, beside you cried out and stumbled back. He knelt down, gripping his smoking upper arm. 

“Don’t move.” You got to his side and began to tend to his wound.

Direct hit. Bone visible. Muscles burnt. This was similar to the injury you sustained before taking the airbase. You knew exactly what to do.

As you treated him, you looked up, taking in the battlefield. Dead and injured littered the dark ground. Troopers were firing. The very earth shook with each explosion that went off. With dread, you realized you couldn’t see Rex.

You commed him, immediately, “Captain, where are you?” Your heart raced when you didn’t get an answer. You searched the battlefield again. 

Your eyes landed on a dead Umbaran wearing clone armor. A puddle of crimson blood was growing larger around the body. You recognized the gold of the 212th. 

So that's the supplies that were stolen. Weapons and armor of the 212th…

Your thoughts halted. Do Umbarans bleed red? 

“Captain!” Tup’s voice came through the comm, “We're sustaining heavy casualties!”

You were frozen, eyes searching the field, “Rex!?” In your desperation, you commed him again.

He answered, sprinting past you, waving his arms, “Everyone stop firing!” He cried out, clearly panicked and distressed.

Rex? What was going on-?!

“We’re shooting at our own men!” The 501st captain shouted, running straight into the line of fire. He threw off his helmet as he continued to clamor, “They're not Umbarans! They're clones!”

Abandoning safety, you stood, getting out from your cover, eyes wide. 

Clones!?

Rex continued forward, commanding his men in a desperate attempt to end the battle, “Take off your helmets! Show them you're not the enemy!”

As he ran through the field, the shots began to wean, but the fight wasn’t entirely over, “Cease fire! They're not Umbarans. They're clones!” Your despairing lover tackled the 212th trooper in front of him and ripped off the trooper's helmet before standing, “Look! We're clones! We're all clones!”

The battle halted in shock and anguish. 

The soldiers around you took off their helmets, some dropping them on the ash colored dirt. The 501st began to step out behind cover, coming face to face with the 212th. 

Their own brothers. 

There was the sound of a blaster loading next to you. Filter had the barrel of his rifle settled under his chin.

“No!” You reached out, only to be too late.

He pulled the trigger. 

Your stare was on his unmoving body, eyes wide and arm stretched out.

Fyre. Vim. Oz. Ringo. North. Gabe. Tro. Tess. Zeb. Sante. Reign. Pheon. Dawn. Nim. Jamie. Hek. Recon. Mav. Zeo. Fisher. Hinge. Trident. Iron. Mesh. Steele. Bruno. Zeke. Jumper. Aura. Dia. Silk. Forty. Thrall. Hardcase. Uno. Barr. Filter.

You looked up, eyes spotting Rex across the field. He looked devastated. His knees were on the ground and his head was in his hands. 

Be strong. For him.

“Kix, give me your supplies!” You barked, shutting down your emotions. Coldness filled your body and blood. Your focus became sharp. The only sound your ears registered was a high pitched ringing. You no longer felt like yourself. 

Save as many of them as you can. Now!

You got to action, searching the dead and triaging the wounded. The world was gone. All that mattered was saving the troopers.

You lost time. At some point, you realized that whenever you blinked, your hands were on a different soldier. The wounds didn’t matter. The blood didn't matter. 

You were going to save them. 

Someone else joined you in your mission to aid the wounded. Kix, you think. He gathered himself together enough to help.

Save them.

Then, you realized the medic of the 212th was beside you, helping stop the bleeding of a 501st soldier. 

Save them.

You blinked again, more time had passed, and you were straddling a 212th soldier. He writhed under you from the pain of you breaking his ribs to perform CPR. Hurt but alive.

Save them. Save them. Save them!

You moved on to another soldier. You held his hand as he died, surrounded by others of both the 212th and the 501st. He had a painted twi’lek girl on his helmet. Once you stood, someone grabbed you. 

Hardcase? No. he was gone. 

Silk? No. you had gotten him killed earlier.

Your name was called, not your title. Not your rank. Your name. They were trying to claw you back into the present. Your mind refused, you moved on to another trooper. Tending to his wounds before someone else grabbed your wrist, halting you.

Who were you staring at? You knew you recognized them…but you had forgotten names.

Tup? Was Tup alive?

You grabbed the wrist of someone else approaching to your left. In their hand were sedatives, you recognized. The needle was aimed for you. 

No. You had work to do. You had to save as many of them as possible.

They dropped the injection, and you stepped away, only to be tackled. The hard earth slammed your mind back into focus.

“You did it! There's no more injured!” Rex was on top of you, keeping you pinned. His brown eyes were wide and full of fear, “You can stop now, Mesh’la.” His breathing was shaky. His cheeks were marked with tears, “You don't need to save anyone else.”

It felt like you woke up. The world around you snapped into place. The ground beneath you was solid. The air in your lungs was crisp, and tasted of smoke and iron. The ringing in your ears disappeared. 

With shaky hands, you held your lover's face. He was alive. He was here. So were you. The both of you were here, in the present.

 “Are you hurt?” You whispered. Sighing in relief when he shook his head, “What happened, Rex?” 

“Krell,” He answered, helping you to your feet, “Krell sent them to these coordinates to stop the enemy. He told the 212th that Umbarans were wearing clone armor.”

He fucking tricked everyone!

Your eyes roamed the former battlefield. The survivors had managed to collect the fallen, and lay their bodies down. You noticed that Kix and the 212th medic were getting names and CT numbers, all to add to the list of casualties. Too many good clones were still, waiting to be marked as dead. 

Krell killed them all.

The five stages of grief ran through your body. They hit you in waves, but you remained standing, surveying the world around you.

Denial.

Anger.

Bargaining.

Depression.

And acceptance. 

But right now. All you felt was one thing, creating a sixth stage of grief.

Vengeance.

“Something has to be done.” You looked to the captain. The coldness had left your body the moment Rex tackled you. Instead, every cell in your body burned with the heat of rage. 

“We all know who's responsible for what happened here,” Like you, your lover held the same wrath. His beautiful eyes were a storm of righteous fury, “I’m getting a squad together. Krell will face justice.” 

You wanted in.

[secular-jew]

Please share and help stop propaganda and educate people.

I was born to hate jews. By Kaseem Hafiz

It was part of my life. I never questioned that. I was not born in Iran or Syria. I was born in England. My parents moved there from Pakistan. Theirs was the typical immigrant story: Move to the West hoping to create a better life for themselves and their children.

We were a devoted Muslim family, but not extremists or radicals in any way. We only wanted the best for everyone - everyone except the Jews. The Jews, we thought, were aliens living in stolen Muslim land, occupiers involved in a genocide against the Palestinian people. Our hatred was therefore justified and just. And it left me and my friends vulnerable to radical extremist arguments. If the Jews were as evil as we've always believed, shouldn't those who support them - Christians, Americans and others in the West - be just as evil?

All of this had its desired effect. At least it did on me. It changed the way I looked at the world. I began to look at the suffering of Muslims, including in Britain, as the fault of Western imperialism. The west was at war with us, and the Jews controlled the west. My experience at the university in the UK only reinforced my increasingly radical conviction. Hating Israel was a badge of honor. Set up an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian rally, and you were sure to attract a huge, approver

While in uni, I decided that the protests and propaganda against Israel were not enough. Real jihad requires violence. So I made plans to join the real fight. I want to drop out of college and join terrorist training camp in Pakistan. But, fortunately for me, fate intervened - in a bookstore.

I came across a book called The Case for Israel by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. The case for Israel? Which case could that be? The title itself infuriated me, and I started reading the pages almost like a travesty. How ill-informed, how stupid, can this guy be to defend the defenseless? Well, he was a Jew. That must have been the answer

👉Still I am reading. And what I read challenged all my dogmas about Israel and the Jews: I read that it was not Israel who created the Palestinian refugee crisis, it was the Arab countries, the UN and the corrupt Palestinian leadership. I read that Jews did not exploit the Holocaust to create the state of Israel; the movement to create a modern Jewish state dating back to the 19th. century, and eventually to the beginning of the Jewish people almost 4000 years ago. And I read that Israel is not engaged in genocide against the Palestinians. On the contrary, the Palestinian population has actually doubled in just twenty years.

👉What I saw with my own eyes was even more challenging than what Dershowitz had written. Instead of apartheid I saw Muslims, Christians and Jews coexisting. Instead of hate, I saw acceptance, even compassion. I saw a violent, modern, liberal democracy, full of flaws, for sure, but fundamentally decent. I saw a country that wanted nothing but to live in peace with its neighbors. I watched my hate melt before my eyes. I knew just then what I had to do.

Too many people on this planet are consumed by the same hate that consumed me. They have been taught to despise the Jewish state - many Muslims through their religion, many others by their university professors or student groups.

So here's my challenge to anyone who feels this way: do what I did - seek the truth for yourself. If the truth can change me, it can change anyone.

I am Kasim Hafeez from Prager University.